Ballymoney man Adam brings Barefeet back home to perform

Barefeet performers who are being brought to Northern Ireland to perform by Ballymoney artistic director Adam McGuigan. INBM26-14 S

ZAMBIAN theatre company Barefeet is promising there won’t be a dry face in the house when they bring their tale of an irate river god to the MAC in Belfast on Thursday June 26.

Barefeet is the theatre group, set up by Ballymoney Adam McGuigan, which uses theatre, arts and circus skills to reach the street children of Lusaka.

Float by Barefeet Theatre is a “wild, wicked and wonderful” adventure based on Zambian folklore about Nyaminyami, the god of the Zambezi river.

In usual Barefeet style the high-energy performance will include song, dance, drumming and acrobatics and the performers themselves are young adults who used to live on the streets in Zambia.

The play is inspired by Frederick Durenmatt’s The Visit and based on the mythology surrounding the building of the Kariba Dam in the Zambezi river which flows through the African nation and is responsible for Victoria Falls.

Barefeet is touring England, Scotland and the US this summer with a dozen young performers who once lived on the streets of the African nation.

“From very humble beginnings armed only with some face paint and a drum or two Barefeet has emerged as a vibrant, award winning theatre company that has performed in Europe, South Africa and Zimbabwe and this is our second visit to Ireland,” Mr McGuigan explained.

He said life on the streets is cruel and the children revel in the creative outlet provided by Barefeet.

“When you reach any major African city you will at some stage come across a young child barefoot and dressed in torn and ragged clothes. The child may be as young as six, high on drugs, filthy and asking for money.

“These children are demanding, often volatile and always planning the next hit. They are exposed to physical and sexual abuse and invisible to most people.

“Float by Barefeet is at the MAC in Belfast on Thursday June 26 and tickets are £10 and available from the MAC. For more information visit www.barefeettheatre.org and www.facebook.com/BarefeetInternational